Thinking about retirement

I probably shouldn't jump the gun, but too often thoughts of retirement are clogging up the brain. I spent yesterday at the Sewing Expo, in Puyallup, immersed in something other than school, and it was a breath of fresh air. Yes, it was crowded, and yes, it was noisy, but there was all the stuff I used to love to do; wonderful fabrics, cool patterns, lovely yarn, and tons of creativity. I split up from my traveling companions pretty early, and met up with a Facebook friend, and then I just wandered. My usual approach to the Sewing Expo is to take a quick walk around the buildings, and then head back to the booths I am most interested in. I didn't buy things just because I could; I bought them because they were things I will work with - once I get my creativity back! I bought two packs of kimono pieces and a cool button from Ah! Kimono, hand-painted silk and a scarf pattern from sweaterkits.com, three smaller pieces of fabric, a knit for a tee-shirt, a sheer for an shirt, and some plaid in a cotton for a vest from a shop called Billie's Designer Fabric in Chehalis, WA, and an Indygo Junction pattern called Floribunda - floral brooches in wools, which I just happen to have in my stash. What didn't I buy? No Park Bench Patterns, because even though I love them, I have yet to make one of the probably ten I own, no Petite Plus Patterns, because I have probably the same number of patterns, but I have sewn with those (even though I'll probably end up buying the jean jacket pattern from the website), and although I really wanted to buy the Sewing Workshop bag with the pattern and the delicious-looking fabric in the nifty zippered clear-plastic bag, I resisted. Oh, and no rayon batik because I have yards of it, all just waiting to be sewn.

I was totally beat when we left after 6+ hours, but it was the kind of tired that is not-so-bad. I mean, nobody argued with me, I had no problems whatsoever reading handwriting or text, and I didn't have to pick up kleenex, pencils, paper (insert other stuff that somehow always ends up on the floor when the children have vacated the place) - in other words, I had a great day with like-minded friends. Yes, the Moodle posts still have to be read and scored, and with mid-term on Monday, the comments will have to be made for my two classes. But, I have things to create, and a sewing room that needs to be hung out in every day, because retirement will be here in 200 workdays or so after this year is over on June 12 (no surprises that I know the last day of the year! Oh, and I know the rest of the holidays as well as the dates of the days I will be gone to meetings or whatever.)

Will I go to the Sewing Expo next year? Yes, I will. I might even take a personal day, and go on Friday, to get back into the groove of attending seminars the way I used to. Spend the night in a decent hotel, and go again on Saturday to spend the day shopping, fashion show-ing, and eating strawberry shortcake. Hang out with friends, or just the crowd of sewing folks - and know that in 2012, I won't have to worry about grading papers.

Vacation is over

Two weeks have gone by with little thought to school. Oh, I had a school dream about a week ago, this one about Vocabulary Development. I think it was about my Title I classes. I had no desire to head out to the place, not even to water my two plants. So, I didn't. Today I honestly figured I'd be scrambling most of the evening with math planning, but much to my amazement I was done with that by mid-afternoon. And the DVD I found that accompanies my math series actually goes with the 2010 edition that we are using, so I ran off a couple of worksheets, just because I could. Weird.

5th period - now that is a different ball game. I headed to my class Moodle page, added the 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year' greetings to the last two weeks, and even got the topic started: the wiki, or more specifically, creating a class wiki. Of course, once I started thinking about it, I stalled. Do I really want the kids to create a Civil Disobedience wiki for Mr. B.? Should we use the wiki link on the Moodle page? Google Docs? Wikispaces? Do *I* know how to create a wiki? What kind of lame teacher am I, anyway? Should I let the kids learn-as-they-go, in a constructivist-sort of fashion? I believe they need to learn how to collaborate (especially a couple of them), and I truly believe a wiki is a good place to start. So knowing that I have a bit of time before 5th period on Monday, I'm just going to let this simmer for awhile, and see what happens. I'm even thinking, let the kids pick the research topic, and then let's see what they can do. Learning target = collaboration in a controlled space.

5.5 months to go......10 school days 'til the next day off.....Vacation is definitely over.

Bombarded

Everything I seem to do anymore has just a little bit to do with technology. Math class - document camera. Library - automated system. Title I - Accelerated Math. Writing Research - Moodle/Digital Citizenship/Paperless if Possible. Home - Facebook, Plurk, Twitter, delicious, Diigo, iPhone. Hmmmm. That looks like more than just a little bit to do with technology; it seems to be part of just about everything I do. I know that sitting here searching, social networking, blogging, checking Moodle and email means that I am not doing the things I used to do. Where is the exercise, the Y, the knitting, the sewing? I still read, but that's about it. I'm usually keeping up on everything things else except what I used to do. Technology has become my new lifestyle. Seriously lacking balance here............

Encroaching on my life - technology

Ok, I've got a million things to do today, but what am I doing? On the computer, writing. It's not even what I'm supposed to be writing, either. I just got back from Moodle Boot Camp, where I was supposed to be learning how to create online classes using Moodle. The connectivity sucked (I'm still convinced it was those darn astrobiologists taking away our bandwidth), and so of course I got behind because I got distracted by my iPhone, Facebook, and other things that were more interesting than waiting for a connection that stayed connected. Where was I going with this.......? Oh, yes, technology. Sitting in a room with 50+ people all working away, I had to ask myself if I have what it takes to be a 21st century teacher. I mean, I truly believe that if I can do anything for kids, it's to better prepare them for their life as a 21st century citizen, and frankly, that means being able to use technology is ways now that they will use later. It will mean working collaboratively, either in person, or online, it will mean using programs, tools, and all of that that I never dreamed I would ever use. And for them, to quote Ian Jukes, of The Committed Sardine blog http://www.committedsardine.com/, they will have an astonishing number of jobs in their lifetimes - 7 - 9 - while I have had basically two jobs, both in basically the same field! Am I actually qualified to get them to where they need to be?

So, what's a mid-century educator to do? Is it this? Keep plugging away at it, read about education and technology, play around, try blogging? Guess so... If I'm lucky, one of these days I'll actually be able to put a hyperlink into a document. More Moodle, please.....

Moodle Boot Camp

I'm sitting in a darkened room at Pack Forest, outside of Eatonville, WA. I'm in the midst of being overwhelmed by the information being presented, and am feeling behind, so what else can I do but write about it? We've had connectivity problems (a word that never made it into my vocabulary prior to this day), and while sitting with my back to the screen, and not being able to log on - and stay on - I've missed a bunch of stuff, like the basics. I hope the book I bought, Moodle 1.9, will help me. Wow - it's cool, but right now, it's too much.....

Vacation

I didn't think the winter break would ever arrive. We had a hint of it on the 18th, with a snow day, followed by the crashing reality of having to actually go back to school on the 19th - with about 50% of the class/school in attendance! Oh, well.

Now I'm sitting at the cabin, and it's snowing, snowing, snowing........ It's starting to pile up, which is nice, since I'm inside. This gives me a chance to not think about school so much, to concentrate on knitting and embroidery, and to read the fat book I've been looking forward to . I might read the math book I brought so I can start thinking about fractions. STOP THINKING ABOUT SCHOOL! I AM ON VACATION, and really don't want to think about school until closer to next week. Back to knitting......

Summer - it's almost over

It's hard to believe I actually took the summer off. Except for two days in June when I went to school to complete contract negotiations, I did not get in my car and deliberately head west to go work in the library. Not once - that is a record! Of course, I was a bit occupied with my Walden class, so while I was not doing school work, I was doing school work. The last day of class is tomorrow, and we have a two-week break before semester four begins. In-services will be happening on the 27th & 28th, and I will probably go out to work at the beginning of the week, so summer will officially be over for me. We start on September 2nd.

What did I do on my summer vacation? I read a ton of books, worked a bit on a quilt I started a few years ago, continued with my current knitting projects, emailed, blogged, and hung out. Not a bad way to spend July (my new favorite month) and most of August. And when we get Internet at the Lake Wenatchee place, I will once again be free to roam the planet knowing I can do my Walden work at our get-away place. I had a great summer, but I'm starting to think about school again. That's always a good sign.